Various denture fixative agents are known which swell in contact with water or saliva thus forming gel-like masses. These masses fill the space between the undersurfaces of the denture plate and the mouth tissue to effect a suction coupling. The agents have been provided in the form of films, powders and pastes which are placed on the wettened undersurfaces of the dental prosthetic plates. Certain polymers of ethylene oxide are reputed to have excellent fixative properties as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,812. Such fixative agents, however, have inherent disadvantages. Their uniformity depends on the care in which they are applied by the user to the underside of the denture plate. Moreover, due to saliva, such agents frequently dilute rapidly resulting in insufficient viscosity to form a good seal, and thereby limiting the effectiveness of said agents to a short duration. Finally, the manufacture of such agents is relatively expensive in that additives must be mixed with the basic agent to improve its flow properties, viscosity and tackiness.
Alternatively, there is known a dental adhesive in which there is a compressed fiber mat containing sodium alginate, a dry adhesive, which swells under the action of moisture in the mouth, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,149. That patent describes the manufacture of a dental adhesive in which sodium alginate is deposited as a dry powder on a non woven web having thermoplastic fibers. Water is then added so as to produce a semi-hydrated state which causes the second web of non woven web material to temporarily adhere to the other web by the resulting sticky wetted alginate. This material is then dried by passing it between heated rollers which also causes the thermoplastic fibers of the non woven mates to be permanently bonded to each other and thus to become a unitary piece. The products of the prior art adhesive manufacturing methods described have the disadvantage of being non uniformly bonded and often short-lived in their adhesiveness. Moreover, the systems of the '149 patent require very expensive and careful quality controls which often result in undetected products of poor quality. Moreover, the aforesaid method requires the use of expensive and time consuming drying ovens. Further, the product deleteriously releases loose fibers in the mouth of the user.